Operation Olive Branch was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The air war and use of major artillery ended as the Arab and Turkmen militias of the SNA entered the city of Afrin on 18 March 2018, and the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo began.

The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist insurgent organization in Turkey involved in the Maoist military strategy of people's war against the Turkish government. It was founded in 1972 by a group of former members of the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey (RWPPT), organised by İbrahim Kaypakkaya as TKP (M-L), who wished to carry out armed struggle.